How To Build A Chicken Tractor, Part One
Part one of seven in Patti, Patti the Garden Girls, how to build a chicken tractor series.
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Step 1:
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Measure the interior.
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Now the cage we're gonna build fits perfectly in each raised bed. So the first thing that you want to do is you have to measure the interior of the raised bed that you want to put the cage into. So I'm just going to go ahead and measure the interior of this bed here.
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Step 2:
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Start to cut wood.
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All right. So I've taken the measurements for the interior of my eight by four raised bed. I'm going to take those measurements and go into my workshop, and I'm going to start cutting out all the pieces of wood that I need for my own chicken tractor.
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Step 3:
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If needed, extra help available on site.
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Now the basic thing you need to know about building a chicken tractor is that it's basically a wooden frame. That's all we're starting with. And the version that I've come up with here is a very lightweight version. Now you can find the exact plan for this exact chicken tractor on my website and download it as a PDF file.
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Step 4:
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Predrill holes in wood.
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We're using two by three lumber. It's not pressure-treated, it's regular building-grade lumber. Remember, you don't want to use pressure-treated wood when you're dealing with animals or raising animals or on your raised beds. They're gonna interact with the soil. Animals also have a tendency to chew on wood, and you don't want that to be ingested by any animals. So you've got just the regular pine lumber here, and I've basically laid everything out already, and I predrilled the holes on the wood.
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Step 5:
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Assemble rear of cage.
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I'm going to start assembling from the rear of the cage first, and these screws-- again, I'm using the same similar screws that you use when you're building the raised beds. So there have been two good things about being able to do construction and knowing how to use a screw gun, all that stuff. One is, my dad is really proud of me. But two is, any time I go to my dad's house I have to actually pitch in and do some work. So it's got its pluses and its minuses
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Step 6:
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Assemble cage.
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In order to really center this door and the doorway, what I want to do is I want to measure the inside of the frame, and that is approximately, or rather exactly, forty-one and a quarter. Nice. Great. So my doorway's done on the end, I've got-- these other guys are still done and in place, and now I'm going to take my strapping-- strapping is just thinner wood. It's lighter, that's why I'm using it. So I've got my first piece right here, it's predrilled, and I'm just going to assemble and line up this little frame of wood here underneath the strapping.
